Some very popular online tutoring platforms that helped children keep up with their lessons during the lockdown are putting their data at risk, a new study has found.
According to the survey, more than half of the platforms recommended to parents for their children's online education did not offer the necessary security for their personal data.
During the lockdown, more than 1.6 billion children around the world were forced to stop going to school. To keep up with their studies, they used online learning platforms recommended even by their own governments
However, 58% of them pose a high risk to children's digital privacy, according to experts at Top10VPN.
Privacy issues included collecting excessively large amounts of personal information and storing location information, while some also shared personal information with third parties.
Among the learning platforms analyzed by the researchers were some of the most widely used around the world, including Khan Academy, ClassDojo , and Scholastic Learn at Home.
Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN, said that the increase in the number of people using teaching platforms during the lockdown resulted in the discovery of vulnerabilities.
Only two platforms were assessed as low risk in terms of privacy, security and advertising, Stile in Australia and Anton, recommended by the German government.
The countries considered to have made the worst proposals were Japan, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.
Platforms can mitigate risk through strict security measures, and sites like Anton show that it is possible to operate successfully without collecting large amounts of data. And if sites are collecting data and making money from it, they should ensure that users are aware of this.
